December 10
...serving up your daily dish.
Amanti Vino, Church Street's new wine boutique, is bringing out the big guns. Besides outstanding wines (like the Domaine Roger Perrin 2003 Chateauneuf Du Pape at $33.95), now there's Montclair's largest wine glass (and unlike the $300 colander you can drink out of it). Guaranteed to save you the trouble of getting a refill, it measures 22 inches tall, 7" diameter at the rim; the hand blown Ravenscroft Polish crystal is 100% lead free. Big enough for sharing with a crowd, think of all the washing it will cut down on. Any other ways can you think of using this? Yours for $125.
Meanwhile, if big isn't your thing, there's always an Amanti Vino gift certificate. Less heavy than lugging wines to friends and family and they get to select their favorite grape. For holiday parties, ask about the great wines for $10-$15.
For more vino-themed gifts, check out the sporty insulated foam bottle carriers found at Magnolia's Wines & Spirits. The BYO bags are available in assorted colors and different sizes: single bottle, $14.95; double size, $16.50 or a six-bottle carrier, for $19.99. With a comfortable hand grip, the carriers prevent breakage while keeping wine perfectly chilled.
December 10, 2005 in Shopping With Barista | Permalink
You can too drink out of a colander; you just have to be very fast.
Posted by: Conan the Grammarian | Dec 10, 2005 1:16:58 PM
If you're drinking out of a colander, please switch to white wine, easier to hide an errant drip. Wouldn't want to sully the holiday finery.
Posted by: sharky | Dec 10, 2005 2:20:06 PM
For $125, a better (read: more useful) buy would be a variety of Riedel glasses from Williams-Sonoma in Upper Montclair.
Posted by: Jim | Dec 11, 2005 8:40:18 AM
Even better, Economy Restaurant Supply in Clifton (but I'm a cheapy)-can get you a case of really nice size wine glasses that you can put in the dishwasher and still have money left over for other gifting.
Although, I wouldn't mind receiving that as a gift with a beautiful floral arrangement.
Posted by: cstarling | Dec 11, 2005 9:06:42 AM
Even BIGGER wine (cognac?) glass spotted on Church Street -- in Dusty's Antiques - entrance across from the Clairidge Movie Theater lobby. VERY COOL and unusual antique store. Just bought an oak medicine cabinet, and the coolest tin sign - very cheaply. Check it out.
Posted by: janny | Dec 11, 2005 9:17:27 AM
For $1.49 you can get a Big Gulp cup from 7-11 in Bloomfield.
Though you'd probably only want to serve Boones or M/D2020 in it
Posted by: Butch | Dec 11, 2005 10:12:42 AM
Mmmm, Mad Dog. I'm still after the elusive Lightening Creek flavor (clear), but I do enjoy the semi-new BlingBling Blue Raspberry.
Posted by: Erin | Dec 11, 2005 1:18:50 PM
I'm a Thunderbird fan myself, graduated to Mateus rose when I attained legal drinking age. Do either of these fine quaffs still exist?
Posted by: rosalita | Dec 11, 2005 2:24:20 PM
everything about that wonderful oversize wine glass screams "fishbowl."
Posted by: fran | Dec 11, 2005 7:09:51 PM
T-Bird is still out there. Probably MD-20/20 too. Mateus I see on shelves in Newark.
I do retain a fondness for beverages that, even as you drink them, you automatically drop down a social level or two.
Posted by: cathar | Dec 12, 2005 10:42:09 AM
"I do retain a fondness for beverages that, even as you drink them, you automatically drop down a social level or two."
I agree cathar, there is certain comfort to sitting in a dive bar (insert Verona Inn)having a pabst with a shot of fleischmanns whilst chewing the fat with a local.
Posted by: The Iceman | Dec 12, 2005 10:49:40 AM
Iceman, stuff like TBird isn't imbibed in a tavern. But rather alleys, frat houses and in cars. Come now, my good man!
And I like the Verona Inn. It's definitely a status level or two above wherever (I don't quite remember now) I was when I sipped as my first gallon jug of TBird was passed round.
Besides, we're all "locals" somewhere, even if we don't have too many "locals" (in the Brit sense) in NJ.
Fleischmann's, too, is in my mind a step or two above both Seagram's and Guckenheimer's, and many over Southern Comfort.
Posted by: cathar | Dec 12, 2005 11:13:21 AM
Ah, my first sip of MD 20/20 was at my first apt post college...Trinity Place in Montclair. A buddy of mine bought it for my 23rd bday as a joke. I think after a few sips we poured it down the toilet to clean out the pipes.
Now pass me my Boones Farm Apple Wine and place that album on the turntable.
Posted by: The Iceman | Dec 12, 2005 11:42:07 AM
Somehow, Iceman, we have gone a long ways here from glasses costing over $100 and wines over $5 a gallon. Not so far, however, in terms of social class.
Imagine, too, how many winos and rummies we could make happy with a $25 gift certificate at the right liquor store. Joy to the world indeed. At least to an oft-overlooked segment here.
Posted by: cathar | Dec 12, 2005 11:57:35 AM
All this talk about Mad Dog 20/20 reminds me of a country song that they used to play in Florida during the 70's
"Do they have Mogen David in Heaven
That's what I've got to know,
If there's no Mogen David in Heavan
Then I don't want to go"
Posted by: Bitpusher | Dec 12, 2005 12:32:25 PM
Before we do, Iceman, let us also recall Brendan Behan's remark that "Work is the curse of the drinking class."
And whether they have Mad Dog in heaven or no, I do recall a rather famous polsa tune, "In heaven they have no beer."
Posted by: cathar | Dec 12, 2005 2:02:44 PM
"I much prefer a fancy, snobbish wine, something like a Chateau Mucilage, an impudent - yet baroque - little St. Emilion, and it's only $157 a bottle; but of course, you can't really enjoy it for another 22 years."
Now you know why wine snobs are so uptight: they haven't had a frikkin' drink for 22 years. Pass the Boone's Farm (but never - ever - drink the wine at a Dead concert).
Posted by: Conan the Grammarian | Dec 13, 2005 8:13:11 AM
